Kerala budget 2025: Govt pushes KIIFB as revenue-generating body

KOCHI: It seems that the govt is going ahead with its plans to make Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) a revenue-generating body, even as opposition parties strongly oppose the move.

The budget presented by finance minister KN Balagopal on Friday confirmed the same. Govt will conduct studies and explore the possibilities of undertaking more revenue-generating projects, thereby transforming KIIFB, he said in his budget.

When KIIFB was first constituted, it was assessed that the board should undertake revenue-generating projects. While a portion of its working capital is provided by the govt through budget allocations, the majority is still raised through interest-bearing loans, he said in his budget.

The opposition is not pleased with the idea as the govt had recently spoken of its proposal to charge tolls on KIIFB-funded roads above a certain limit of expenditure. The opposition had fiercely opposed it when the govt confirmed recently that LDF had discussed a plan to introduce a toll system on KIIFB-funded roads. KPCC chief K Sudhakaran had warned that if the govt proceeded with its toll collection plan, Congress would launch a protest.

Opposition leader VD Satheesan said the announcement on KIIFB's new model proved that the agency would become a liability for Kerala. When the KIIFB bill was introduced, the opposition had raised legal objections and said the debt taken by KIIFB will become the govt's liability. What benefit did the state gain from KIIFB? The then finance minister TM Thomas Isaac had said that the opposition did not understand the new economic model. Now, the opposition's claim that KIIFB would become a liability for Kerala has become a reality, he said.

The opening declaration in the budget regarding the state's improved fiscal health is misleading. The current administration has accumulated unprecedented debt levels, surpassing those of all previous govts in Kerala's history, he said.

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